The present invention deals generally with human function measurement apparatus and more specifically with a pulse rate monitor device made specifically for use while participating in strenuous physical activity, such as exercise.
Current medical technology indicates that monitoring of the human pulse rate can yield valuable diagnostic information. Moreover, pulse rate monitoring is an important factor in regulating a meaningful exercise program designed to strengthen the pulmonary and cardiovascular systems. In such an exercise program, it is important to exercise to a level which significantly increases the pulse rate but to limit that increase in pulse rate to prescribed levels to prevent over-stressing the body functions too early in the program. Yet the conventional method of pulse monitoring, counting the pulse for a period of time, requires pausing in activity. Such monitoring is therefore unsuitable in that it measures the pulse after the exercise, not during it.
Ironically, however, pulse rate monitoring with accuracy equal to the ultimate in the electronics art is also not fully satisfactory to the individual on such an exercise program. For instance, a pulse rate measurement made by measuring the time between two pulse beats, however accurate, yields results which have little medical significance. Because there is considerable variation in an individual's pulse-to-pulse timing and because short-term patterns are noticeable in such pulse-to-pulse times, a useable rate monitor must to some degree duplicate the traditional method of medical pulse-taking which is an average of pulses taken over some period of multiple pulse beats. Only such a measurement allows the monitoring of pulse rate to be tied in to an individual's medical history and to medical technology in general.
Several pulse rate monitoring systems are known, for instance, U.S. Pat. No. 3,908,636, No. 4,030,483 and No. 4,063,551. This prior art, however, is unable to accurately detect, process and display in a simple format, the pulse rate of a user under actual conditions of use while exercising.
It is, therefore, an object of this invention to yield a personal pulse rate monitor which accurately and conveniently indicates the heart beat rate to a user while the user is actually engaging in strenuous physical activity such as bicycling.
It is another object of this invention to measure the pulse rate in such a manner that the results are consistent with prior methods used by the medical profession, so that previous diagnostic techniques may continue to be used.
It is a still further object of this invention to furnish a sensor contact system which is independent of variations caused by the user's grip or the particular activity of the user.